(Pictured above is Zhang Yongjian, IBM's global vice president and general manager of cloud computing business in Greater China)
Ibm has been well received by the market since ibm launched ibm cloud private, a private cloud product based on the open source kubernetes container architecture, in October last year. Zhang Yongjian, global vice president of ibm and general manager of cloud computing business in Greater China, said at the 2018 ibm think forum (China) on April 11, 2018 that since the launch of IBM cloud private, hundreds of enterprise customers have been harvested, of which customers from the Chinese market account for 25%, accounting for a considerable proportion. In the past, watson could only run on the public cloud, but now it can also run in a private cloud environment, which has driven the private cloud market.
Xia Lebing, vice president and chief information officer of Fuyao Glass Industry Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Fuyao Glass), said at the 2018 ibm think forum (China) that Fuyao Glass adopted the private cloud product at the beginning of the launch of IBM cloud private. Xia Lebing believes that the highlights of IBM cloud private products include: open source openness, continuous innovation capabilities, rich function and tool integration, security, high reliability, docking with the original IT system, and AI-based data science analysis capabilities. Xia Lebing emphasized: "From a forward-looking point of view, we feel that IBM's platform is more recognizable than other architectures. ”
(The picture above is Xia Lebing, vice president and chief information officer of Fuyao Glass)
On November 1, 2017, IBM launched Kubernetes-based IBM Cloud Private. IBM Cloud Private gives enterprises access to cloud computing environments and development capabilities similar to public clouds on-premises, especially IBM Cloud Private, which is built on an open source kubernetes container architecture that supports docker environments and cloud foundry architectures, which helps workloads integrate and migrate in a hybrid cloud environment, including the IBM cloud public cloud platform.
Fuyao Glass CIO Xia Lebing said that the openness of IBM Cloud Private is surprising, "Ibm Cloud Private The entire platform is based on open source, and its openness is what I did not expect before." Because in the traditional impression, ibm is still relatively proprietary." Ibm Cloud Private's core cloud platform includes open source container engine groups: kubernetes orchestration, cloud foundry, and integration for these development environments, automated common management tools, and corresponding container software and development frameworks, including IBM Websphere Liberty, open source open liberty, mq, microservice builders, etc. as well as optimized management and devops tools.
As we all know, the open source container cluster management framework kubernetes has become the de facto industry standard for open source container clouds. Since Google launched Kubernetes, the industry's container cloud services and container cloud solution vendors have almost all fallen to Kubernetes, and the kubernetes community members have also been unprecedentedly prosperous. It is not surprising that IBM chose kubernetes as the container cluster management framework for its private cloud, before IBM was already a member of the open source paas community cloud foundry foundation, ibm public cloud is based on the framework of cloud foundry.
Zhang Yongjian, global vice president of IBM and general manager of cloud computing business in Greater China, said that the concept of IBM cloud private products was first born in IBM China Lab, and when ibm China team developed for large banks in China, it was found that open source technologies and solutions could be productized. Previously, IBM has launched private cloud solutions around the world, but after the maturity of kubernetes, microservices, container technology, etc., it has also joined the private cloud productization camp based on open source technology.
Ibm cloud private products provide support for a variety of infrastructures, including Cisco, Dell Emc, Intel, Lenovo, netapp, as well as IBM's own hardware systems, ibm power system, ibm z series, and IBM hyperconverged systems supported by nutanix software. In terms of data and analysis, it also supports a wide range of open source software postgresql, mongodb, etc., as well as IBM's own IBM db2 database, including advanced analysis services such as artificial intelligence and cognitive computing such as IBM watson, and advanced cloud services such as blockchain will also land on IBM cloud private.
Xia Lebing said that for traditional enterprises such as Fuyao Glass in the digital transformation, the biggest challenge is the talent problem, especially the lack of senior talents who understand new IT and cloud computing and other technologies, and these talents are often reluctant to join traditional enterprises. Although cutting-edge open source technologies such as kubernetes are powerful, but the difficulty of mastering is also very high, so "when we choose technology suppliers, of course, we can have a company to follow the growth, we do not have to pay attention to these most cutting-edge, the latest technology, but only need to follow such a company, it should have a strong ability in the industry, can continue to add new technologies to this platform, we can take it and use it."
Fuyao Glass is one of hundreds of companies that have deployed IBM cloud private since the second half of last year, and the productized IBM technology and solutions have obviously accelerated the speed of enterprise deployment of private clouds, especially those that have already deployed IBM technology in their traditional IT environment, and it is easier to migrate to IBM cloud private.
Fuyao Glass's main business is to provide safety glass full solutions for various means of transportation, including automotive grade float glass, automotive glass, locomotive glass related design, production, sales and service, the company's business model for global research and development, design, manufacturing, distribution and after-sales service, synchronous design, manufacturing, service with customers, can be systematic, professional, rapid response to customer needs.
"Today has reached an internet age where speed is everything. This speed is not only about quickly meeting the individual needs of customers, but also about launching more competitive products for competitors, and speed also means significant cost savings. Now many Internet companies have also entered the field of automobile manufacturing because of the development of new energy technology and intelligent driving technology. These crossovers bring new thinking and pay more attention to new technologies, and they can't stand the long development cycle of the past tradition, so they hope to use technology to change, accelerate and shorten the research and development cycle. ”
On ibm cloud private, Fuyao Glass has established a research and development environment that can cooperate with customers, based on the same three-dimensional digital module scene, customers, partners, and related parts companies can perform similar video conferencing collaboration effects on it, such as delivery, engineering changes, visual modifications, etc. "This changes the traditional file-based upload and download, based on intermittent, fragmented and fragmented communication mode, everyone in an orderly unified architecture, rapid collaboration, improve work efficiency." Through hard work, Fuyao Glass has been able to control the research and development cycle of about two years of traditional development of a piece of glass products in six months or even two months, so as to quickly meet the various needs of customers.
Xia Lebing introduced, with the help of IBM cloud private, Fuyao Glass has established an end-to-end intelligent collaboration platform within the enterprise, integrating dozens of IT systems, different heterogeneous systems, cross-organizational systems, etc. established in different periods on a platform, and can also integrate data and use them, and allocate the resources of the entire group in a unified view environment, which not only improves efficiency, but also significantly reduces costs.
Fuyao Glass is also an international company with investments or production in nine countries. Because the policies of each overseas market are different, Fuyao Glass will invest in the construction of local IT systems in each country. Fuyao Glass originally used localized talents, localization of independent deployment of a set of systems, so the construction cycle is very long, and the manufacturing industry in various countries lacks IT talents, so it is impossible to effectively share the IT capabilities of the entire group, the IT system built in various countries is often heterogeneous, and the effect and quality of implementation are not very good.
Now, Fuyao Glass has gradually migrated the entire group's business to the cloud platform, based on a standard, a unified process, using the IBM cloud platform to build a global and visual application system, and deploying the domestic mature management process and process flow to the cloud. In this way, when expanding overseas, fuyao glass's it capabilities are always in a state of readiness. In the future, Fuyao Glass can also use the IBM cloud platform to establish a global unified design and development center, which will concentrate the R&D, design, and process personnel scattered in various countries, and enable them to serve the global factories at the same time through technical means, so that the most conservative estimate may save more than 50% of manpower, and is also conducive to the rapid global proliferation of new technologies and new capabilities.
Xia Lebing introduced that in 2018, Fuyao Glass will build a 3D virtual factory on the IBM cloud platform to fully simulate the factory in reality. Now Fuyao Glass has begun to integrate R&D, design, process, and even its own development platform on ibm cloud private: after realizing R&D design simulation, process simulation at the process end, simulation of production line balance after process simulation and simulation of logistics. Fuyao Glass hopes to be able to solve 80% of the quality, efficiency and cost problems in the virtual factory in the future, and when all the problems are solved, it will send the simulation results to the manufacturing end for real manufacturing.
Fuyao Glass 3D Virtual Factory will bring great value to the entire enterprise to achieve flexible production, intelligent manufacturing and rapid innovation. 3D virtual factory is not only a simulated production environment, but also a global collaboration platform, in the future, Fuyao Glass managers in Fuzhou can see the actual manufacturing conditions of factories in the United States, Russia, Germany and even other places, real site data, the meetings being held in the factory, if necessary, even real-time intervention in the conference system to issue instructions and ideas, "This innovation is also the key to the 'Made in China 2025' or intelligent manufacturing that we are now implementing."
"Fuyao is currently using the IBM cloud platform to achieve rapid cloud migration, which brings about changes in value and efficiency, which is what we are doing today." Xia Lebing stressed the importance of IBM cloud private at the 2018 ibm think forum (China): "Fuyao Glass has gradually moved from a traditional glass manufacturer to intelligent manufacturing, and it is precisely because of such a cloud platform that gives us the ability to be agile and orderly, making us more confident to respond to rapid changes in the market." ”
Martin Schroeter, senior vice president of ibm's global business, said at the 2018 ibm think forum (China): "With the development of technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and cloud computing, 80% of the data that was originally hidden behind the corporate firewall will be fully activated, and the insights generated will drive the transformation of enterprises from disruptors to innovators." Digital intelligent platforms, intelligent processes and business models that integrate human and machine will help enterprises achieve 'smart business'. ”
Ibm cloud private products quickly recognized by customers after the launch of the product, indicating that the productized private cloud helps traditional enterprises quickly release innovation behind the enterprise firewall, and new technologies and services such as process automation, data analysis and prediction based on watson cognitive computing are important reasons why IBM attracts enterprises. Representing the views of many traditional companies, Xia Lebing said: "We have stopped investing in traditional technologies. (Text/Ningchuan)